Militarization and Violence Against Women in Mexico: Analyzing Space, Time and Capital

Abstract How does militarization impact women’s experiences of violence in Mexico’s war on drugs? Utilising feminist political economy analysis, and based on extensive interviews with feminist civil society, grassroots activists, and security professionals, this paper identifies the mechanisms through which militarization compounds violence against women across three interrelated dimensions: space, time, and capital. We argue that militarization entrenches the division between the public and the private, reproducing gender stereotypes. Moreover, we find the state’s prioritization of military action devalues social reproduction and tacitly outsources time-intensive practices to women, leading to depletion. Militarization also produces gendered harms that especially marginalize rural and Indigenous women by diverting capital away from essential social infrastructure and facilitating resource extractivism that degrades the environment and displaces local communities.